The Lima Climate Change Conference concluded with the Lima Call for Climate Action, which lays the groundwork for a 2015 climate agreement in Paris, including rules on how countries can submit intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) during the first quarter of 2015, reads a communique of IISD.

INDCs are expected to make up the basis for climate action post-2020 when the new agreement is expected to enter into force. Multiple options for proposed elements for a draft negotiating text are attached as an annex to the decision and will be discussed during the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action’s (ADP) 2015 sessions.

The conference, which met from 1-14 December 2014, achieved a range of outcomes and decisions. For example, both developed and developing countries announced pledges to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), bringing initial capitalization past the US$10 billion target; and 17 developed countries agreed to a Multilateral Assessment of their emissions targets, leading to increased transparency and confidence building.

The conference also concluded with, inter alia: the Lima Information Hub for REDD+; the Lima Work Programme on Gender; and the Lima Ministerial Declaration on Education and Awareness Raising, which calls for including climate change in school curricula and climate awareness in national development plans. The Governments of Peru and France launched the Lima-Paris Action Agenda to convene key global, national, subnational and local leaders and to showcase partnerships and actions of non-state actors. The Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) was also launched.

Hailing the conference’s outcome, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged parties to enter into substantive negotiations on the draft negotiating text at the February 2015 ADP meeting. He applauded progress made in clarifying needs to prepare and present INDCs “well in advance of Paris” and in “finalizing the institutional architecture for a mechanism on loss and damage.”

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres highlighted several breakthroughs, including the recognition that adaptation is just as important as mitigation, and that a new understanding of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) encompasses: historical responsibility; respective capacities and capabilities of countries; and national circumstances. She said the two-week conference was “very, very challenging” but lauded its outcome, saying, with this COP and moving on to Paris, “we cement the fact that we will address climate change.” She said 2015 would be dedicated to “putting numbers on the table.”